A lot of people have been asking me about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past year wading through the veil of promises to what I think it really means. Once again, a nice-sounding, vast initiative appears to be a dangerous elite power grab at the expense of people and eco-systems worldwide.

WHAT THEY SAY IT IS:
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is being couched as a liberating set of international trade accords — a “viable pathway for realizing the vision of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific.”

WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS:
Many who have looked behind the smoke screen on this one are describing it differently. Global Trade Watch calls it “a stealthy policy being pressed by corporate America. (It’s) a dream of the 1%.” David Icke says it “sets out to devastate freedom and impose rule by deception.”

WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief, Julian Assange writes, “If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

What are they referring to? Here are a few facts about the TPP. It:

Empowers multinational corporations to sue foreign or domestic governments in a special court if their profits are deemed to be impeded by concerns such as the protection of eco-systems.

Extends patents to further benefit pharmaceutical companies to the detriment of generics and consumers.

Forces Internet providers to “filter” all communications in search of copyright infringements with the power to censor sites that are alleged to be involved. This would be the next attempt (after CISPA, SOPA and PIPA) to put the Internet under corporate rule.

Creates Supra-national powers that override national laws and constitutions.

The TPP is being negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. And now China has expressed interest in participating as well. The deal was put together primarily by 600 corporations and their lobbyists. It will affect some 800 million people and could represent up to 40% of global GDP.

The TPP is leading the way for the equally secret US-EU pact TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), for which President Obama initiated US-EU negotiations in January 2013. Together, the TPP and TTIP will cover more than 60 percent of global GDP. The planning for TPP was started January 1, 1994. So why haven’t we heard about it before now?

I believe those orchestrating the scheme are aware of the blowback they would get if there were accurate information disseminated — especially with enough time for us to truly consider its implications. In fact, President Obama, who sold so many with his promises of transparency during his first election, has actually classified most of the TPP documents so that even most Congressional representatives can’t get a look at them, or talk about them publicly if they do.

The proposed agreements are strongly supported by American corporations and the US Chamber of Commerce, but opposed vehemently by Internet freedom advocates, environmentalists, organized labor and global health experts. Already 173 members of Congress (including 150 Democrats) have come out against Obama’s trying to “fast-track” agreement to the proposal — which he attempted over this recent Christmas holiday…just as Wilson did in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act. Fortunately, most of the countries involved are also against it in its current form.

Does all of this feel creepily familiar…instigating authoritarian rules that mostly benefit the elite, while establishing more consolidated control over most people’s lives? Well it should… Think NDAA, Patriot Act, Citizen’s United, NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, NAU (North American Union), Carbon Tax — I won’t go on with the list, but I could. You get the point.

I do want to focus in on a couple of other current examples of this same dynamic, because recognizing the repeating pattern can help us organize our efforts effectively before it is too late.

Codex Alimentarius
Fritz ter Meer was an IG Farben (the corporate arm of the 3rd Reich) board member prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials for mass murder, slavery and other crimes. He testified that prisoners in the concentration camps who were used for testing various drugs were not subjected to exceptional suffering — because they were going to be killed anyway. In the 1950s he became chairman of Bayer Corporation.

In 1962 he became one of the main architects of the Codex Alimentarius, which was intended to take over food and supplements worldwide. Codex would classify vitamins, minerals and herbs as toxins — and only allow doses that would have virtually no effect.

Under this plan, all dairy cows would have to be treated with Monsanto’s bovine growth hormones. Nearly all foods would need to be treated with 1-7.5 kiloGray of radiation. This tyrannical food regime is intended to set rules for over 160 countries — 97% of the world population. It is backed by the UN, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization (all Rockefeller / Rothschild creations.) The Natural Solutions Foundation calls the new Codex standards, “food regulations that are in fact the legalization of mandated toxicity and under-nutrition.”

Cap & Trade - Copenhagen
As we touched on in our film THRIVE, the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit entailed a huge push for a global Cap & Trade System, which then and now has fortunately still failed to be implemented. I say “fortunately” because it would have duped us once again into the wrong result for the right reasons. The global cap and trade system sets limits on carbon emissions for businesses around the world. It is set up so that the worst polluters can buy “pollution credits” from those who stay under the limit and pollute less. Supporters argue that this not only sets realistic goals to decrease pollution, but economically incentivizes businesses to pollute less.

It may sound like a good idea, but there are serious negative consequences to cap and trade. It:

Penalizes some industries without applying to others

Still allows for excessive amount of pollution

Authorizes a global taxation system to undermine national sovereignty and to fund a global centralized authority

Relies on self-reporting from industry

Creates the next financial “bubble” (after dot com, real estate and taxpayer bailouts) for financial elite to artificially boom and bust for only their own benefit

Another way to deal with pollution would be to internalize the costs of producing clean energy and to hold polluters criminally liable through the justice system for violation of other’s property — and that property would include our bodies. We each own our lungs and air pollution violates them. Sufficient penalties would make polluting prohibitive so it would be phased out and the real savings of healthy goods and practices could become apparent.

And what if the “New Energy” technologies were to be allowed out to the world? The burning of fossil fuels would soon be a relic (might I say, a “dinosaur”) of the distant past.

My research indicates very strongly to me that the TPP is not a ‘mistake’ that will inadvertently consolidate power into the hands of the same elite who control our banking systems, but a calculated and long-planned assault on human freedom. It is the next plank in the platform being erected to destroy individual and national sovereignty. It is being perpetrated by corporations, which are owned by banking elite, protected by the government, all controlled by the very same power structure.

The TPP is a sign-post at the fork in the road we described in THRIVE. Do we keep going toward a one-world totalitarian state, or leap off that track and head toward a world of freedom, voluntary exchange, the rational ethics of non-violation, and the prosperity that that direction has always brought when it is not taken over by coercive authoritarian states?

So what can we actually DO about the TPP and all that it represents? I think it’s useful to break out some possibilities into the categories we suggest to our Solutions Hub Network — Immediate Needs, Systemic Change, and Consciousness Shift. Each of us is inclined toward one kind of action over another, and the TPP is a big issue with tentacles that reach far into all realms of our lives. We recommend doing what is most aligned with your particular passion, and coordinating with others who have complimentary skills, passions and networks.

Consciousness Shift
First and foremost, we can get educated and share vital facts and perspectives with as broad a network as possible. This helps shift consciousness — our own and others. Share this and other videos and articles (like the ones linked below) about what is dangerously hidden within the TPP’s claims of increased trade, and emphasize the larger context of liberty, whole systems and practical actions.

If you participate in the political system, make it clear that you won’t support, and will in fact expose, politicians who are selling out to the corporate establishment with the TPP and other issues. Make the TPP an issue candidates can’t avoid addressing.

Engage in creating and supporting the independent, de-centralized, non-coercive alternative systems of true voluntary exchange, honest media and ethical systems of free-market cooperation, dispute resolution, currency, community and security. Transparency is an important Stage 1 step to help ensure accountability, and is clearly an improvement over pure, covert chicanery.

Ultimately, the notion that a few individuals calling themselves “a corporation” or any “state”, much less a total, global state, should be telling us who we can trade with, what we can ingest, or how we can access energy — if we are not violating anyone — is the kind of illogical, unethical coercion that only succeeds through propaganda and the threat of violence. Creating the alternatives are important as we move toward a thriving world where no one has rights that all don’t have.

Immediate Needs
To stop the imposition of the vast and dangerous precedent of the TPP, be a whistle-blower if you have key information, and create highly-leveraged protests, boycotts, divestments, non-violent non-participation and civil disobedience. Send notice of events to us at info@thrivemovement.com for us to post, or post them yourself on our Facebook page.

Here are highlights of the strategy and tactics that empowered people of Northern California to stop a billion dollar toxic aerial assault from George Bush Jr. and Homeland Security in 2007 — intended to spray 7 million residents, nine months a year, for up to 10 years, with chemicals containing carcinogens, mutagens and endocrine disruptors.

This plan, when acted on by thousands of volunteers working in different Sectors, shut down the program in 6 months for less than $50,000. Along with the THRIVE Solutions Model, this can be used to guide successful activism on virtually any issue where violations are taking place.

Congressional leaders on the US trade policy have introduced legislation that would grant President Barack Obama “fast-track authority” to enact three looming global trade accords, including the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R) and top Senate Finance Committee members Max Baucus (D) and Orrin Hatch (R) on Thursday unveiled the Trade Priorities Act of 2014 that would require a simple up-or-down vote on major trade deals without the opportunity to offer amendments to pertinent bills.

“The [Trade Priorities Act] legislation we are introducing today will make sure that these trade deals get done, and get done right,” Sen. Baucus said in a statement. “This is our opportunity to tell the administration - and our trading partners - what Congress’s negotiating priorities are.”

The Obama administration is seeking the heightened authority in trade deals, allowing the Executive Branch to smooth congressional negotiations on accords. The two major deals, both long in the works, that are likely to be subject to such legislation are the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the 28-nation pact with the European Union, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA). The deals would establish the world’s largest so-called free-trade zones.

The US is also working on a services-trade accord with a group of nations that would encompass half of the global economy.

The TPP has come under much scrutiny for being negotiated among the US and 11 other nations along the Pacific Rim: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Critics cite serious concerns over how provisions of the project could, for example, drive up the price of medications and other goods across the world. The White House’s reluctance to provide details to leading lawmakers responsible for America’s trade plans has caused a rift within the President’s own political party, as his administration remains adamant about protecting the items being heard.

According to leaked excerpts of the Pacific deal, the Obama administration has been considering TPP provisions that would allow foreign corporations operating within the United States to appeal regulations on the environment, labor and banking that would be enforced on American-owned businesses with no chance of reprieve.

Under the provisions, while the US could be sanctioned for failing to impose regulations on American-run businesses, multinational corporations are given a direct path by the TPP to file such appeals. If one of the Pacific nations chooses to go down that route, their plea would be heard by an international tribunal that could overrule US law.

One group opposing the TPP deal - Fight For The Future - says there is more to be concerned with besides secretive international court mandates. According to group the TPP will:

Outside of elevating “individual foreign firms to equal status with sovereign nations,” government transparency advocate Public Citizen says TPP seems to be less about trade but rather mechanisms to enact corporate policy at the expense of the average American.

“Of TPP’s 29 draft chapters, only five deal with traditional trade issues,” Public Citizen reports on its website. “One chapter would provide incentives to offshore jobs to low-wage countries. Many would impose limits on government policies that we rely on in our daily lives for safe food, a clean environment, and more. Our domestic federal, state and local policies would be required to comply with TPP rules.”

In late July, Obama called for the new fast-track authority. US Trade Representative Michael Froman and US Commerce Department Secretary Penny Pritzker have both urged Congress to ultimately pass the measure.

Supporters of the fast-track legislation include major players like the Business Roundtable, the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers. Boeing, Pfizer, Walmart and numerous other major corporations have aggressively lobbied for the authority granted in the Trade Priorities Act.

“TPA is the Chamber’s top trade priority before the Congress,” Thomas Donohue, the organization’s president and chief executive officer, said Thursday in a statement.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday that while he had not seen details on the new proposed legislation, “when there’s progress on that front it’s a good thing,” according to BusinessWeek.

Meanwhile, a competing bill to the Trade Priorities Act is in the pipeline, said Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

“You have to have a very substantial increase in Congress’s involvement at all stages,” Levin told reporters. The Trade Priorities Act “falls far short” of what would meet that standard, he said.